Fig and Fennel Salad

Thai Pumpkin Soup

Homemade Quince Paste

Rum Bundt Cake

Corn Chowder

Corn Pudding

Friday, February 16, 2007

This past weekend celebrators of the Chinese New Year welcomed the Year of the Pig while consuming crescent-shaped steamed dumplings. The dumplings, or jiaozi, resemble ancient Chinese gold ingots and symbolize prosperity and good fortune. By eating the jiaozi at midnight, New Year's participants hope to transfer wealth from the previous year into the next. The dumplings are traditionally steamed or boiled, as described below, but can be prepared as potstickers as well. While the initial celebrations have ended, many days remain in this two-week long Spring Festival to enjoy these tasty treats. For a fun, simple Oscar Night hors d'oeuvre, steam the jiaozi and serve with the scallion dipping sauce. Enjoy!

Toss the cabbage with the salt in a colander set over a bowl. Let sit 20 minutes. Meanwhile, mix pork, scallions, soy, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, egg whites and pepper. After the 20 minutes, gently squeeze the moisture out of the cabbage using a rubber spatula, then add to pork mixture. Mix thoroughly, cover with plastic wrap and chill 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the sauce: combine all ingredients except the scallions. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. Add the scallions just before serving.

Fill a large, wide-mouthed pot with water and bring to a boil. Lightly dust a cookie sheet with flour. Fill a small bowl with water. Lay 5 wrappers on a work surface. Keep the remaining wrappers covered with plastic wrap. Place one tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper. Using your fingertip moisten the edge of one wrapper with water. Fold the wrapper in half. Pinch the center and work toward the outside edges, pressing out air pockets. When dumpling is sealed, place on floured pan and cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Repeat with remaining dumplings. When all the dumplings are prepared, add 8-10 to the boiling water. Make sure none is sticking to the bottom of the pan—use a rubber spatula to release dumplings from bottom of pan if necessary. Boil for 4 minutes, check one, and cook for 1-2 minutes longer if necessary. Times will vary depending on the size of the pot and how many dumplings are being cooked at one time.Remove dumplings from water with slotted spoon or spider, and let drain and dry briefly before serving. Serve with Scallion Dipping Sauce.

Visual Tour of Polyface Farm:

Meat birds live on grass under floorless pens. Every morning Joel Salatin drags the pen to a fresh patch of grass. Each patch of grass rests 364 days before a group of chickens feeds on it again.

Joel Salatin dragging one of his floorless chicken pens.

The Eggmobile

The eggmobile houses laying hens. It follows the herd of cattle, arriving to grass they've grazed on four days earlier.The hens peck at the four-day-old cow pies, eating various insects, larvae and parasites - rich sources of protein - and accomplishing a whole lot more along the way: By eating the fly larvae and parasites, they rid the land of potential pathogens and disease; by scratching through the droppings and spreading them across the grass, they enable the manure to sink into the ground and fertilize the soil; and by eating the pesky insects, they reduce the presence of one of the cows' biggest irritants.

Joel Salatin

Salatin, surrounded by his laying hens, explains the cow-chicken symbiosis on his farm. Salatin refers to his laying hens as his "sanitation crew."

Shademobile

Cows graze on a fresh patch of grass every day, enclosed by portable electric fencing. This portable shademobile travels to each new patch of grass too, always allowing the cows shelter from the sun.

Gobledygo

The gobledygo, a portable shelter for turkeys, also follows the cows. The same symbiotic relationship described above exists between these turkeys and the cows.

The Raken House

Rabbits and chickens coexist in the Raken House. Rabbits live in cages suspended from the ceiling. Chickens roam around on the ground below, scratching the bedding, performing the same "sanitation" duties as described above with the cows.

The Raken House

In the center of the Raken House stand trough-like structures where the hens lay their eggs.

The Raken House

Salatin holds a baby rabbit for a little girl to see.

The Barn

Joel Salatin stands in the open-sided shelter where his cows spends a portion of the winter. During the winter, the cows eat hay (dried grass accumulated throughout the growing season), and live on a bedding consisting of woodchips, sawdust and old hay to absorb the cows' excrement. When the heavy cows tread on their nitrogen-rich manure and on the carbon-rich bedding, packing it together, they allow the mixture to ferment (anaerobic composting). By adding corn to the bedding, Salatin entices his pigs to turn the bedding into compost: When the cows return to pasture in March, the pigs dig through the densely packed bedding, searching for the tasty fermented corn, aerating the pile and turning it into compost for the spring.

The Happiest Pigs Ever

Pigs on Polyface Farm are "finished" in the forest. They spend their final weeks feasting on high-protein nuts and tree bark. This diet purportedly gives their meat great flavor as well as makes their fat healthier — Salatin calls this meat "olive oil pork."

How To Cut a Lemon or A Lime

Step 1: Cut straight down, just to the right of center.

Step Two:

Turn so the cut side is flat on the board. Make another cut just to the right of center.

Step Three:

Repeat step two: Turn; and cut straight down just to the right of center.